City of Columbia will pick up recycling Tuesday
City spokesman Steve Sapp said that Columbia Solid Waste will pick up recycling as normal on Tuesday. The City of Columbia canceled curbside recycling pickup on Monday due to a staffing shortage with Columbia Solid Waste Utility. Those missed on Monday will be picked up next week.
The city is short 22 employees, according to a news release from the city.
Sapp said the uncertainty could last all week. He hoped that the issue would become more stable later this week or early next week.
Taylor Boyce, who lives in central Columbia, said she did not mind waiting a bit longer for her recycling to be picked up. She said she appreciated the curbside service, compared to the previous town she lived in which required her to drop off her recycling in person. She said the ease of placing it outside may encourage people to recycle more.
“If you would have to go and take it in your car and take it somewhere else, people might not want to do it because it’s inconvenient for them and it takes time out of the weekend, the week to have to dispose of it,” Boyce said.
City records show that the utility has paid People Ready, the temporary worker agency that supplies the city with trash collectors when needed, $445,502 since Oct. 1, 2018. Sapp said the city sometimes cannot fill all the vacant positions with temporary workers.
The Solid Waste Utility currently has nine refuse collector positions vacant, and there are an additional nine staff members unavailable due to injury or illness and four not available for other reasons, the release said.
The city said it will focus on trash collection first with the staffing it does have and will make recycling collection a second priority.
